Prior to the launch of his band's North American tour, The Killers [ tickets ] guitarist Dave Keuning explained that the fun part had just begun for him. Behind him were the weeks of recording his band's fourth album, "Day and Age" and e-mailing tapes back and forth to The Killers' producer, Stuart Price.

"I'm excited," Keuning said. "Playing the shows is the most fun part for me."

The Las Vegas-based group--which also includes vocalist/keyboardist Brandon Flowers, bassist Mark Stoermer and drummer Ronnie Vannucci--recently wrapped up the run of shows.

Keuning spoke to LiveDaily about the album, The Killers' democratic songwriting process and the song he wrote for his late mother, "Goodnight, Travel Well."

Why did you decide to name the album "Day and Age"?

I don't really know. It's just the album we made at this time. It was the first album-title idea we had on the board and, I don't know, it just kind of stuck.

In listening to the album, it sounds like you experimented a lot more with different sounds.

It was fun. We have a lot of different influences--everything from David Byrne, [Bruce] Springsteen to U2 and Duran Duran as well--and different things'll pop out at different times. We just felt like, "Why not try a little bit of this 'tropical rock'?" or whatever you want to call it. There's some darker stuff on this album, too. We just covered some new ground we haven't covered before. We're not limiting ourselves.

What brought it on? Was it your producer's idea?

It was our idea. We just wrote it. Nothing really brought it on. Sometimes, different song ideas come out of us. We like to do stuff we haven't done before. It was fun for us.

"Good Night, Travel Well" is probably one of my favorite songs on the album. Was it difficult to write?

Yeah, it was a dark one right away. I always wanted to make a song like that. I like that kind of music, too. I'd never tapped into that mood. I think we've only made a song like that once.

What was it like to work with Stuart Price on the album?

It was great. We worked with him a little bit on [2007's] "Sawdust," and we knew kind of what he'd be like to work with. Just from that experience, we wanted to work with him [again]. He was really easy to work with, recording and getting good sounds. He wasn't short on input, if we wanted input from songs. He was a good match for us.

Did you really e-mail the album back and forth when you worked on it?

We did that before we actually got in the studio. We e-mailed ideas back and forth. We just wanted him to be familiar with our songs before we actually went in the studio. It really helped a lot and I think it made the album go much faster. Once he actually came into town and into the studio, the whole thing went very quickly.

What is the songwriting process like with The Killers?

It's shared. One song might be written by Brandon, another one might be written by someone else, like me, Ronnie or Mark, or the next one might be written by the four of us in practice. We've never said, "Hey, it has to be done this way." Wherever a good idea comes from, we use it if everybody likes it.

So it's kind of a democratic process, then?

It's a democracy but we don't even say it's a democracy.

How do you feel that "Day and Age" fits in with your catalog?

Perfectly, I think. I think it sounds, to me, like a cross between "Hot Fuss" and "Sam's Town," but a little bit more refined and mature, being four years after "Hot Fuss." We've gotten better at making music, hopefully.